The proposed project asks the following research question: is it feasible to extend the normative objective of competition law to include a focus on the welfare of workers in addition to the current focus on the welfare of consumers?
For several decades the orthodoxy within competition law enforcement has been that the ultimate objective of such enforcement should be the consumer welfare standard. In recent years, this consensus has increasingly been criticised by academics on the both sides of the Atlantic. The claim is that a narrow focus on consumer welfare may lead to externalities that are detrimental when viewed through a broader lens of public policy. One claim is that while focus on consumer welfare may benefit consumers, it may come at a cost of increased economic inequality.
The relatively weak distributional condition imposed by the consumer welfare standard, permits and incentivises companies to become more efficient and thus more competitive by lowering wages and other employment costs, which can be detrimental to large classes of workers as is exemplified by the contemporary rise of the gig economy.
To answer the research question the PI, an emerging specialist in competition law, will collaborate with an established professor of economics. The research will thus be interdisciplinary, using insights from the theory of law and the theory of economics, and through an active collaboration of University of Iceland’s Faculty of Law and Faculty of Business Administration.
Funding: The Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland
Host institution: University of Iceland, department of law
Principal investigator: Dr. Haukur Logi Karlsson, postdoctoral fellow
Academic Collaborator: Dr. Gylfi Magnússon, professor